LyondellBasell CEO: New Gulf Coast plant part of ‘next generation’ of innovation

LyondellBasell’s latest Gulf Coast investment is part of “the next generation” of the company’s innovations, its CEO told the Houston Business Journal.

LyondellBasell’s investment in its Gulf Coast footprint is another chemical plant that will be built at a to-be determined location. The Netherlands-based company, which has its operational headquarters in Houston, will build the plant to develop and produce more polyethylene, the most common form of plastic. The project is part of the company’s plans to spend $4 billion through 2020 in the Texas and Gulf Coast regions to take advantage of the low cost of oil.

“We don’t try to invent everything, but when we’re focused, we’re very intent on trying to develop the next generation,” said Patel in an interview with the Houston Business Journal. “This one is the next generation for us in polyethylene.”

Patel said LyondellBasell is “spending quite a bit in research and development funds” to finance the project, which company executives have been planning since late 2013. The plant should be producing product by 2019, he said, and could create up to 1,000 construction jobs and as many as 75 permanent jobs. Product from the plant will be sold in the U.S. as well as exported to Europe and Asia, Patel said.

This polyethylene technology will produce a variety of high-performance multimodal HDPE products. The HDPE could be used to make things such as pipes, bottles, containers, toys, film, health care items, plastic fuel tanks and industrial packaging. The technology was developed in Germany and Italy, he said, and product development was done in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“It’s a new technology,” Patel said. “It’s part of our heritage – we’ve been very innovative in the past in process and catalyst development, especially in polyethylenes (and) in chemicals technology … To have a great chemicals company, you have to have great technology, and you have to invest in research and development.”

The new project is the latest in a series of expansions LyondellBasell has announced in the Gulf Coast area.

LyondellBasell announced plans to build the world’s largest propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant in the greater Houston area in November. In early 2015, the company announced it would double production capacity at its existing Bayport Underwood plant. In 2014, the company announced plans to install two large cracking furnaces that are slated to increase production by 250 million pounds per year at its Channelview plant.